Chairs are used by many people every day without much second thought. However, the effects of chair use are profound, both mentally and physically. Many physical and mental aliments, including depression, lower back pain and arthritis can be attributed to the regular use of chairs.
Meditation and yoga are becoming more and more common in North America and these practices have been proven to benefit those practicing them as well as those around them; such practices include sitting cross-legged which is more common globally than sitting in chairs for the simple economic reason that many people cannot afford to buy chairs. Unfortunately, conventional North American chairs do not take advantage of these practices.
There are many inventions pertaining to aiding one to sit in a cross-legged position. However, most of these devices are comprised of a cushion or wooden platform that is placed at floor level or just slightly above, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,374,109,5,876,098, 5,490,717, 4,673,216, 5,029,350, 5,134,740, 3,890,004, French Patent 2769813 and Japanese Patent 7204059A2. While the devices taught by these patents are useful for meditation while sitting on the floor they are not a practical tool in an environment designed around chairs.
A further cross-legged sitting device is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,379 which discloses a chair with its seat adapted to allow a user to sit in a cross-legged position. However, this simple device does not offer the versatility of the present invention.
Accordingly, in view of the prior art, it is desirable to provide a versatile seat for allowing a user to sit in a cross-legged yoga position in any environment such as an office, home, school and restaurant and which will accommodate a variety of users to overcome the shortcomings of and improve upon the prior art.